Category Archives: Tortured victims

Thanks to Patrick for this translation of an Animal Político story about torture in Mexico. Not a single English-speaking journalist has covered the visit to Mexico of the Special Rapporteur on Torture. The article points out Mexico’s failure to investigate, prosecute, and punish serious human rights violations.

This article was published on 24 April 2014 in AnimalPolítico. It has been translated without permission for the Mexican Journalism Translation Project (MxJTP).

Human Rights Abuse in Mexico: A Decade Without a Single Public Official Guilty of the Crime of Torture

By Tania L. Montalvo (ANIMALPOLÍTCO)

– Investigations Exist but no Punishment for Public Officials in either Military or Civilian Jurisdictions

Over the past decade — and in response to public information requests — figures provided by the Federal Attorney General (PGR) and the Ministry of Defense (SEDENA) show that not a single official has been published for the crime of torture, neither in civil nor military jurisdictions.

In case there are any doubts as to the continuing violence in different places in Mexico as summarized yesterday in Jim Creechan’s post, this was posted this morning in REFORMA… Yesterday, 12 people were killed in Nuevo Leon and so far this morning, 11 more people have been assassinated in the same region.

After a day Monterrey that left 12 executed in Nuevo Leon, this morning continued the violence that left 11 people killed.

These crimes, which occurred between the first minutes of Wednesday and 7:30 am in several municipalities of the state, are related to organized crime.

On Tuesday, the violence claimed the lives of 12 people, four decapitated, dismembered and seven executed one.

This morning, judicial police and experts of the Office began an investigation of the cases, the first recorded in the municipality of Santa Catarina, where three men were shot.

The discovery of the bodies was recorded near the 0:40 hours in an alley located between a vacant lot and a factory in the streets Solidarity and Cuauhtémoc, Colonia Las Palmas.

The three youths, aged between 18 and 25 years old, had a bullet wound in his forehead, apparently 9mm.

A police source reported that relatives of the victims said that gunmen had raised the young as they gathered in a house in the Colonia La Fama 4.

A second incident occurred in Escobedo, where were found the bodies of two people executed in an abandoned van on the edge of the Northwest Bypass, on kilometer 24 of the road.

In Cienega de Flores, around 5:00 pm, a man was found maimed in the streets of Villa de Alcalá Fractionation, on the border with Zuazua.

Furthermore, in two points of the Municipality of Fisheries were found the dismembered remains of two others.

In the municipality of Montemorelos two men died and a woman was seriously injured when attacked with bullets as they traveled in a van.

The attack occurred at Kilometer 191 of the National Road in the community of Buenavista.

Finally, one person died and another was wounded when attacked on the road dead-Juarez Apodaca, Apodaca, opposite Colonia Pueblo Nuevo, around 7:30 am.

Just on Monday, Gen. Noe Sandoval Alcazar, Commander of the Fourth Military Region, said the criminal group Los Zetas had lost strength due to the coordinated efforts of the Army to the state and municipal police of Nuevo Leon.

State Security spokesman, Jorge Domene even attributed the alleged failure to blows against bands that gave the state authority.

As I was driving home today and listening to the news about Todd Akin and “legitimate rape“…

I thought, well, what we have been seeing in Mexico for (at least) the last 6 years is a government that says there is homicide and then, there is “legitimate homicide.” And government mouth-pieces ranging from mayors and police chiefs of Juarez, to governors of Chihuahua and on up to Secretaries of Gobernacion, Defense, and Public Security and on up to President Calderon himself have consistently said that “90 percent of the dead are criminals being killed by other criminals.” [legitimate homicide…] The recent Washington Post article quotes numerous government spokespersons in Juarez reinforcing this idea that all of the killing happened between criminals — “legitimate homicides”– and government forces are now bringing calm to the city… All this at the very moment when the Mexican government is being forced to admit that it cannot legitimately classify homicides at all since it lacks the capability to investigate more than one or two percent of the crimes and now the national statistical agency says that despite all the claims of “winning the drug war,” there were more homicides (by far) in 2011 than in any other year since Calderon took office (or any year prior to that since the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920)… Here is the REFORMA article from today on the new INEGI numbers. I’ll post something more comparative tomorrow…a GOOGLE translation of the REFORMA piece is below…and a little chart I am working on comparing the INEGI releases from 2011 and today. According to my first look at this new data, with estimates of what will happen for the remaining months of Calderon’s term, we are looking 116,869 homicides during the sexenio. And these are all connected to real government data and real body counts. NOT including estimates of disappeared people or bodies yet to be uncovered from clandestine graves… [feel free to check my arithmetic] Molly Molloy

GOOGLE TRANSLATION:

27,199 murders recorded in 2011

Chihuahua, according to INEGI, is the state with the highest number of violent deaths with an average of 131 murders per 100,000 inhabitants

By REFORM / Writing

Mexico City (August 20, 2012). – In 2011 there were 27,199 intentional homicides in Mexico, the highest in the six-year period, according to data released by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). The figures are derived from the information provided by the administrative records of the Registry Offices 723 4000

Civil Registry and 96 thousand prosecutor agencies that provide monthly data on deaths accidental and violent, precise INEGI in a statement. The Institute notes that the company with the highest number of deaths was Chihuahua, which occurred in

average of 131 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, and the lowest rate was Yucatan, with three cases. “To facilitate comparison of data from homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, was an exercise by the INEGI, for population estimates for each of the years of the series to be present, consistent with the results of the Census of Population and Housing 2010, “says the Institute. “So these calculations will not match other data generated from official projections current population are based on the Second Population and Housing 2005 and conciliation

population of 2005. ” According to the annual breakdown presented by the Institute, in 2006 there were 10,452 deaths, while in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 occurred 8,867, 14 006, 19,803 and 25,757, respectively. However, last year, according to the cut last July, have not finished it processes generation of statistics, the figure reached 27,199 deaths.

And here is a comment on the earlier post by my colleague at Cal State Northridge on the news media complicity in this continuing falsifying of the record:

_______________________

Amazing (but not surprising) to think this is not a big story in the U.S. Plus, a great example of how government agencies shape and manipulate reality. The Mexican government definition of drug-related crime is as bogus as the definition of gang-related crime in the U.S. The purpose, of course, is different, but the effect has been catastrophic for poor people in both instances.
The result of this, as pointed out by Molly, is that news media organizations have been reporting Mexico’s government figures without challenging the government, which means a reduction of the size of the impact on Mexican society. Instead of 50 or 60,000 drug-related killings, we should be talking about 100,000+. Think of Vietnam: 50,000 U.S. soldiers killed (and the impact on American society). Now, imagine double that size with a population half the size of the U.S. during Vietnam. Nobody in Mexico has remained untouched by this. And this is not the end yet… From Jose Luis Benavides

For the second time in a month, 14 mutilated bodies have been abandoned in
the town of Ciudad Mante in Tamaulipas. Also, according to the story posted
from Cronica, during the wave of violence yesterday in Mexico, at
least 44 people were murdered in the states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz,
Guerrero, Nuevo Leon, Jalisco, Durango and Michoacan. In the Veracruz case,
11 bodies were found in a clandestine grave. The article lists other
incidents. I posted a google translation.

During a wave of violence yesterday at least 44 people were killed in
separate incidents related to organized crime in Tamaulipas, Veracruz,
Guerrero, Nuevo Leon, Jalisco, Durango and Michoacan.

In Tamaulipas, 14 mutilated bodies appeared inside an abandoned truck in
the parking lot of a shopping mall in Ciudad Mante.

A source from the state attorney explained that at 09:00 hours was reported
the discovery of the bodies along with a narcomensaje in the parking lot of
a supermarket chain located in the center of the municipality.

The prosecution explained that it is 10 bodies of men and four women all
mutilated and a narco message to the Gulf Cartel.

While in the municipality of Lerdo de Tejada, Veracruz, was located a
clandestine grave with eleven human skeletons.

The Secretary of the Navy of Mexico undertook dig up human remains.

Meanwhile, in various municipalities of Guerrero the wave of violence left
seven people killed, five of whom died in shootouts in the municipality of
Apaxtla Castrejon and another died in hospital Teloloapan. In Acapulco, a
shooting left as a result one dead, one wounded and a woman deprived of
their liberty.

In Monterrey, a body was found in a car, while gunmen executed one person
and wounded his nephew left refusing to pay a fee.

In the first event in the center of Monterrey was found a corpse in a
Volkswagen Jetta with the plates FGR-2162.

Moreover, in San Nicolas de los Garza, a man about 60 years old was shot by
an armed, while his nephew aged between 20 and 25 were injured.

In another incident, after close off a motorcycle, the driver of a van was
amagado by armed men who kidnapped him, but managed to escape despite being
tied hand and foot.

Meanwhile, in San Sebastian del Oeste, Jalisco, human remains were found
buried in three mass graves, which correspond to three people.

The bodies were in a ranch called Palmillas de Macedo and experts from the
Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences (IJCF) exhumed the skeletal remains.
One of the bodies has a bullet in the head and is maimed.

In Durango, two people were killed and one was injured more seriously, when
staff moved Expert Services on board an official unit Soapy village was
attacked by several gunmen with these results.

Within the limits of the municipalities of Buenavista Tomatlan and
Tepalcatepec in Michoacán five bodies, three men and two women, were found
inside plastic bags.

Alleged gunmen executed the coup de grace to the five people, among which
one of the women was pregnant and was beheaded, and one of the men were
maimed arm. The rest of the bodies were blindfolded and showed signs of
torture.

In addition to the bodies found on the bridge of Piedras Blancas, right
next to a grocery store, was found pinned to the chest of one of the women
a message that said: Here we leave a little present gentlemen to see that
it can be since we’re here Mencho and Rafa Álvarez: att 8 CJNG.

The CNN International report on the arrest of Daniel de Jesús
Elizondo Ramírez, El Loco, the Zeta chief accused of the murder and
decapitations of the 49 people whose bodies were dumped in Nuevo Leon last
week… But first is an article from El Universal that is in El Diario.
I’ve translated a portion of the article here… This is pretty clearly all
from the SEDENA press release and note that the dates do not make any
sense… It appears to be quite a sloppy job of what the military usually
does: launch an operation in an area; kill a lot of people; then make a
high-profile arrest to blame it on the “Zeta of the day…” Note that there
were Mexican reports from the day after the bodies were found of the
banners posted all over the country, supposedly from the Zetas, saying that
they had nothing to do with the killings.

molly

Daniel de Jesús Elizondo Ramírez, El Loco, was operating for more than a
year as head of the Zetas criminal group in Cadereyta zone.
Official reports from the 7th Military Zone also indicate that “El Loco”
was responsible for the murder and dismemberment of Kendy Cavazos Caballero
and Katia Cavazos Castillo, both 24 and relatives of Aurora Cavazos,
Secretary of Social Development in Nuevo Leon.
The young women were arrested at the end of Sept 2011 for “causing a
scandal in public” and taken to the prison in Allende, a municipality
located some 60 kms south of the state capital in Monterrey.
While they were detained, they communicated via telephone with a lieutenant
in the Army who was the boyfriend of one of them.
Police who were working for Elizondo (the Zeta just arrested and charged
with the murders of the 49) reported the incident to the boss who then
ordered them to turn over the women to him.
On August 1 (no year provided…but note that the girls were supposedly
first arrested at the end of Sept 2011 and there has been no August 1 so
far this year) Kendy and Katia Cavazos were found in 3 boxes abandoned
alongside the Cadereyta-Allende highway, together with a message addressed
to the military.
Due to this murder, the Army deployed an operation in the town and in the
last 2 years, they have registered at least 20 kidnappings of businessmen
and cattle ranchers, and despite the fact that in some cases ransom was
paid, the victims were not returned alive.
On August 3 (again, no year) Army troops and state police agents detained
14 police from Allende accused of working with organized crime.
Seven of them participated in turning over the young women to “El Loco.”

El Diario reports 6 killed yesterday in Juarez. But, according to the reports in the paper and the press notices from the Fiscalia, I believe the actual count for May 14 is 8. One man died in the hospital after being wounded on Sunday. Another man was found inside a house, apparently beaten and left to die. Also, the dramatic event yesterday was the finding of 2
heads and 4 hands left outside of the Bar “Bandoleros” in Juarez. The article early Monday said that Sunday was a “dia blanco” no murders recorded in the city. I am in the process of counting the numbers for the month of May and I will
post that later today.
Also posted, the case of the state prosecutor and her son murdered in their home on Saturday. The mother who worked for the Fiscalia had intervened after her son killed an off-duty federal policeman in a bar fight in 2010. She had the murder charge downgraded to “simple homicide” result of bar fight rather than aggravated… so her son got sentence of 4 years and served 13 months. The commentators in the article say this is normal and OK–that is what defense attorneys are supposed to do–except for the little complication in this case that the mother worked for the prosecutor and not
in the capacity of defense attorney. After getting out of jail, the son tried to join the state police academy, but alas, he was rejected cause of his criminal record. molly

According to the figures for the state of Chihuahua for 2009, women are 5.9
percent of the total number of homicide victims. I may be missing
something, but I can see no statement or evidence in this article that the
12 (or 22) female murder victims discovered in one (or several) places in
the Valle de Juarez recently and who are thought to have been disappeared
and murdered between 2009 and 2011–I see no evidence in what has been
released about the recent discoveries that establishes that these women and
girls suffered the “very particular type of violence” that has been defined
by academics and others “as systemic sexual femicide, which has to do with
disappearances, torture, rape, mutilation and with abandoning their bodies
in empty lots or deserted areas of the city.”

One of the people quoted in the article says: “And there is also the issue
of the veil covering those responsible for the slayings,” she said.”—But
as far as I am aware, there are no meaningful prosecutions in a huge
percentage of ALL of the more than 10,000 murders that have occurred in
Juarez just since 2008.

I’ve also seen nothing in any of the writing about the “femicides of
Juarez” that establishes these murders as anomalies with the numbers or
characteristics of female homicide victims in other places in Mexico. In
fact, the only things I’ve seen that even compare the numbers have
established that for all of the years between 1990 and 2007, the only thing
that distinguished the female murder victims in Juarez and the state of
Chihuahua from other states in Mexico is that the victims tended to be
younger. [see:

It seems to actually be the case that there is LESS neglect to the
murders of women in Juarez than in other places in Mexico with similar
numbers of female homicides and in that regard the activism on the part of
families is to be commended for bringing attention to the disappearances
and killings. It would be an advance if such attention could be brought to
bear on the many more thousands of victims over the same years who are men
and boys. [those numbers posted below for 1993-April 2012…]

Years Women Total % Women

1993-2007………………427 (3,538) – 12%

2008 ……………………….87 (1,623) – 5.3%

2009……………………….164 (2,754)— 5.9%

2010 ………………………304 (3,622) – 8.3%

2011 …………………….. 195 (2,086) – 9.3%

2012 (as of April 30) …55 (416) – 13%

*Women………**…1,232 **( total **victims)* (14,039) – 8.7%

Women = 8.8 percent of total murder victims over the past 18 years
Statistics from El Diario based on official data from the Chihuahua
State Attorney General

14 more bodies–these were decapitated– have been found today in Nuevo
Laredo…in addition to the 9 bodies found early this morning hanging from
a major overpass in the city. I hope it occurs to someone to question how
these acts in such public places can take place without the cooperation of
government and/or participation of criminals within the military and law
enforcement agencies.

Three homicides were reported yesterday in Juarez, bringing the total
number of killings as of April 25 to 86 for the month and for the year
2012, the number of homicides is about 395. The estimate since January 2008
is now about 10,480. Another article from today details the
abduction of 5
*THIS REPORT IS ON THE VICTIMS OF THE KILLINGS NEAR THE SAN RAFAEL
CEMETERY. THE BODIES WERE FOUND ON TUESDAY AND THE VICTIMS HAD BEEN
ABDUCTED ON MONDAY. I translated this article from today’s Diario. Another
case of eyewitnesses to kidnapping and murder carried out by Federal
Police. As far as I know, none of the victims have been identified in order
to protect the survivor and the family members who testified.*
Relatives and friends of the four people killed alleged that the
perpetrators of the killings and injuries to the woman who survived, are
agents of the Federal Police (PF).
The complainants, who asked the condition of anonymity for fear of being
killed, said the victims were in a park when hooded federal agents deprived
them of freedom and hours later they took them to the gap located about 2.5
kilometers from the Panamerican Highway where they sexually assaulted the
women, tortured one of the men and then they shot all of them. “The
federales are the ones who did that. What we want is that this does not go
unpunished, because the kids were good, two of them worked as laborers and
the girls worked at a second-hand market in Paseo de Mitla.”The survivor
said that they were abducted violently; she is certain that she saw the
federales when they picked them up and when they killed them. They shot her
in the head and she went crawling to the road as best she could and called
for help,” said a relative of the victims.* *